“Sanatana Dharma was against social justice and equality and that it should be ‘eradicated’ like malaria and dengue,” the Tamil Nadu deputy CM said in 2023.
NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Monday, January 27, refused to entertain pleas seeking legal action, including registration of an FIR, against Tamil Nadu deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin over his statements on ‘Sanatan Dharma’.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and PB Varale questioned the maintainability of writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the Constitution. Sending the disclination of the apex court to entertain the plea, senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appearing for B Jagannath and two other petitioners, sought permission to withdraw the pleas.
Ultimately, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn with the liberty to avail remedies available under the law, PTI reported.
The Supreme Court also seized a plea filed by Udhayanidhi Stalin seeking directions to consolidate various FIRs and complaints lodged against him over his controversial statements.
Agreeing to examine the plea, a bench presided over by Justice Sanjiv Khanna (now CJI) sought responses from various state governments in the matter. The plea contended that the DMK leader has been receiving threats to his life and will encounter great difficulty in appearing before different police stations and courts in different regions.
What did Udhayanidhi Stalin say about Sanatan Dharma
“Sanatana Dharma was against social justice and equality and that it should be ‘eradicated’ like malaria and dengue. It (Sanatan Dharma) has to be eradicated, rather than opposing it,” Udhayanidhi Stalin had spoken at a function of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers on the Sanatan Dharma in 2023, saying that it was against social justice.
Later, he refused to apologise for his remarks and justified himself by stating: “I will say this continuously.”
Earlier, the top court had said that it would not entertain a plea seeking contempt action against Udhayanidhi Stalin over his controversial statements saying that it would be “impossible” to hear individual cases across the country. “If we start entertaining contempt, we will be flooded with it. We will not go into individual cases,” it had said.
